Update on Berenson v Twitter

This would be a very good time to donate to the legal fund

As you may know, the little bird and I have been in mediation and settlement talks over my lawsuit. This is not a secret, it’s in a court document filed last week.

I can’t speak publicly about the details of the mediation. Those are confidential.

HOWEVER. I want to make this clear. I want to be on the record and commit to it.

Judge William Alsup’s discovery order requires Twitter to give me everything it has about me, including “nonparty complaints or inquiries about plaintiff.” The language is unambiguous. If people inside the government - or drug company executives, or anyone else - talked to Twitter about me, Twitter has to tell me.

When I say everything, I mean EVERYTHING: “all texts, emails, voicemails, statements, and other documents pertaining to plaintiff.”

Further, discovery rules generally allow me to publicize what Twitter gives me, unless I agree to a protective order. That’s why I wrote three weeks ago in The Wall Street Journal that “My Lawsuit Will Shine a Light on Twitter Censorship.”

As we debate the power and political influence of social media companies, this discovery offers a unique opportunity to see how Twitter and the federal government and others may have colluded against my voice. No one else has this chance. No one.

And I am not going to give it up.

Not for reinstatement, not for money, not for all the viruses in China. I will NOT agree to any settlement that does not preserve my discovery rights about third-party communications AND give me the right to publicize them. There are other things I will (and have) given up, you have to give to get, but this is the reddest of lines.

If Twitter can’t or won’t agree, so be it. Discovery will proceed. I will get the documents anyway. (And then depositions will follow, yippee!) I have agreed to a single 10-day delay on discovery; there will be no more delays.

So there we are. Twitter knows where I stand on this issue, and now you do too.

Now the ask: I will never be able to match Twitter’s legal budget, but the closer I can get the better position I’ll be in. Many of you have already generously donated, and I am very thankful.

If you haven’t, and would like to, you can give to the GoFundMe fundraiser, to my Venmo account (email me for the address), or by check to my lawyer James Lawrence at Envisage Law at 2601 Oberlin Rd STE 100, Raleigh, NC 27608. Every gift matters, every dollar counts.

Now back to work.